Erica is a good friend of mine and a fabulous hairstylist. In April she challenged herself to style her hair differently every day, and we thought a video would be a great way to end the challenge. If you’re looking for a hairstylist in the greater Los Angeles area, hit her up!
I believe strongly in the “Practice every day” school of thought, whether it’s writing, or exercise, and especially shooting. I strive to find a balance between not forcing work when it’s an off day, and keeping my skills in good enough “shape” the muscle memory will take over when the muses are taking a mental health day.
For that reason, I love jobs like the Largest Mixer. The Largest Mixer is a convention of local small businesses. Considering small businesses are my favorite thing to shoot, I’m kind of in hog heaven.
The numbers put me to the test and even if I’ve got some silly reason why I’m not in the mood, I just don’t have the time to let my ego get in my way of the job.
My challenges are a) shoot every business, b) get every business’s logo or name in the shot and c) deal with convention center lighting.
The parameters make me creative. I find weird ways to bounce on camera flash, and I’m constantly circling booths until I find an angle that works for composition and also shows the business’s name.
In three hours, I shot portraits of 200 vendors, (not even including the detail shots/crowd shots!). This event was significantly larger than the one I shot in October, with an attendance topping 3,000 people and I really felt it; I had a booth but almost didn’t spend any time at it at all.
However, I started emailing out some of my favorites to businesses yesterday and I am overwhelmed at the positive response. It’s a great lesson: not every photo will be great. But show up, do the work, just make it though and you will be surprised by what you can accomplish. I’m grateful for the opportunity to have so much practice so quickly… and I see I Dutch Angle McGee needs to learn to take head-on shots of crowds.
Wash, rinse, repeat.
So my good friend Rory Riggins is primarily a character animator (and also a high-caliber human being), but he also makes furniture out of driftwood and just started taking (very limited) commissions.
This small business video essay is a little different that my previous formula because I shot it over the course of two shoots. It was great to track the process from early ideas to finished product through the still photos. And I love using stills within videos; it allows me great control over what I direct the audience to look at.
Rory is definitely a very different business than the others I’ve documented as he’s brand new to this and it’s nice to see how versatile the video essay format is shaping up. Check out some more of his progress.
People with small businesses absolutely light up when you talk to them about the “why” behind the process rather than the details or payment information, and that has been my favorite part of producing these videos. Just to throw it out there into the universe I think a Bed and Breakfast would totally benefit from a video like this. Don’t you think travelers would love to see the friendly faces who will be making them breakfast before checking into a stranger’s house? So email me, universe.
What do you do when Meg Keene asks you to come shoot stills at the grande finale stop on her book tour?
You say “Let’s roll some video!” And then you fist pump because you know there will be champagne after.
I produced these two videos from start to finish in four days and I’m super pleased with the results. As soon as Meg picked up that ridiculous veil I knew I was in for some grade A+ material.
Meg Keene: You’re Welcome, Internet. from Rory Gordon on Vimeo.
Party In A Book Store from Rory Gordon on Vimeo.
Not only did I have the pleasure of shooting her, I also got a chance to see Jessica again (of Jessica Schilling Photography) and meet Chi-Ling Wang (of Chi-Ling Wang Photography). Have you seen the blog post with the still photo recap of the tour? The three of us have photos of the same damn event all in a row and I love that we all captured completely different perspectives.
I love working with Meg because her message of sanity is awesome, but I also love it because she attracts other badass small business owners and she has an incredible capacity for encouraging the best collaborations from those around her. The there-is-room-for-everyone, rising-waters-make-all-ships-rise mentality is just about the greatest outlook in the book.
So I want to put it out there to the universe: I want to be a part of more small businesses. I want to do more than take portraits of business owners: I want to tell the story of how they got where they are, and why they’re so crazy about it. Because if there’s anything I’ve learned from watching my dad run a small business my whole life, it’s that you have to be a little crazy to open your doors to start with (and crazy makes really good stories).
What are we waiting for?
One of my very favorite projects so far this year was shooting a small business photo essay on Tara and Kathleen of Braid Creative. They are that awesome combination of people who are incredibly creative and also people with Serious Business Brains. Which is pretty much a recipe for wildfire, if wildfire involves taking small businesses and launching them (or relaunching them) off the ground with gusto and style.
See what they have to say about it here!
(Also, happy 100th blog post to me. I get a cake, right?)
My good friend Madeline makes adorable bows under the name Bows and Arrows. She’s got a big craft show coming up in December and I was happy to shoot some product photos to fill out her Etsy shop. I’ve never seen her make the same bow twice so we shot as many as possible to give her customers the idea of her range.
Here are a few of my favorites. Find more on her Bows and Arrows Facebook page!
Also, note the redheaded model is none other than Madeline herself. It’s all a part of my master plan to plaster the internet with small business photo essays.
Shaken, not mixered.
In addition to photographing the Inland Empire small business mixer, I also was also an exhibitor (not the scandalous kind, don’t worry). I was really excited to try it out, primarily because I’m a teeny tiny business and a lot of my work days involve sitting in my very quiet living room office and not talking to humans. It’s funny, shooting is an intensely social activity, especially events… trying to stay out of the way, read people’s minds, and yet be a pleasant addition to the environment. However any photographer will tell you, shooting makes up the smallest fraction of what makes a freelance career. I do a lot of huddling over my computer so I really enjoyed the chance to see other businesses operating.
I’m in the staggeringly broke inventive and resourceful stage of my career, so I knew I needed to be very careful about what I got printed up for the event.
I focused on selling my small business photoessays. One of my absolute favorite things to shoot is a small business in action. It brings together my love for shooting people in their workplace, styling products, and telling a story.
So I devised a plan to do just that: I charge a day rate, and come on location to a small business to shoot product photos, corporate headshots, and location photos all at the same time. By charging one rate, I get to free up the schedule a little bit, leaving room for me to collaborate with the owner and get creative.
I printed the first small business story I’ve shot, of my Dad’s jewelry business, as an 18”x24” poster. (This is getting kind of long. Click through to see the rest of my print materials!)
Here are a few quick highlights from the Inland Empire’s Largest Mixer I shot on Wednesday. This event had businesses ranging in size from one wiry redhead (hi there) to AT&T to Habitat for Humanity. I shot about a hundred vendors in two and a half hours, and let’s just say the business card exchange rate was through the roof.
Lighting in a convention center like this is always tricky, so I use mostly bounce flash and I trick while balance using a gel book before the event got started. My philosophy in editing is the following: Go for the accurate skin tones. Even when the room tones aren’t exactly the same from sequence to sequence, I always prefer even skin. More on that later!
Not only did I shoot this event, but also I was an exhibitor thanks to my trusty sidekick (slash husband) James. Of course there’s only one lonely little photo of my booth, and I’m holding what is probably a nonsensical sign to most viewers, and there’s subway napkins on the table, a gel book, and a sharpie… that whole shoemaker’s children thing is totally true.
I’ll be posting more about my print materials and the exhibitor side of going to this event next week. Stay tuned! But first I have about a million emails to catch up on and my first official wedding to shoot this weekend. Hustle hustle hustle!
New photo essay, called “The March of Science” until somebody suggests something less cheesy.
